Weekly Responses #2 – Qur’an: ‘The Newer Testament’/Bible as Literature

Denis Jekić

2^nd of February, 2013

Weekly Responses #2 – Qur’an: ‘The Newer Testament’/Bible as Literature

Discuss one difference observed between the Qur’an and the Bible:

            I have never read the Qur’an before, nor have I really taken a chance with the Bible. This is my first experience with both and from what I’ve read so far, it is completely different from what I thought. I have always viewed the Bible as a book that was fair and just and wrote of everything that is right and that may be so in the New Testament. This predisposed positive view of mine quite possibly may be due to the fact that I believe that the bible is associated with religion which I see as something positive but what I discovered in the Old Testament was shocking and slightly hard to grasp. There is so much inequality, which I understand may be due to the fact that this was written long ago, but either way it has been interpreted by people and conditioned into the values of people. People are blindly following these ideals and some of them are just too much to believe. Women are mostly viewed as something that helps populate the world. They are given away for the sake of others, no matter the ties they hold with those who give them away. This may be due to how devoted people are, but would one really be able to do something so horrid and live with them self? The Qur’an seemed to take an almost equal view but it had a more positive light. I felt as though it was a little more tolerable on some issues. Love is even mentioned within the book, which is something that I’ve yet to see in the Bible. Unless it is referencing towards the love one ought to have for God. Love is viewed in the Qur’an as the bond between two people. It is respected and much less harsh and logical than the viewpoints presented in the Bible. I understand that both can be interpreted in many different ways and it may not even be viewed this way by anyone else, but there is something more spiritual about the Qur’an.

Discuss one similarity observed between the Qur’an and the Bible:

            One noticeable similarity between the Qur’an and the Bible is the importance both place on having a “blind devotion” to this book and to the God and everything that is expected to be done by the believers to follow the righteous path of God. There are many examples the Bible provides that show us blind devotion to God. Lot, from the book of Genesis, shows his devotion when he offers his daughters up to be used so as to protect the men that he was hiding in his house. This shows that he would rather follow the plans that God has for him and give up his daughters to be used. In the Qur’an, an example of blind devotion that I observed was found in Surah 39 (Table Spread/The Throngs) and Surah 109 (The Disbelievers). I found it strange that the Qur’an had an answer to each disbelief or questioning of the ideas presented within it. For every question against the ideals of the Qur’an, there was something written as a guide for what to say back to defend the devotion people have for the religion. “Say” was often repeated throughout Surah 39 as a command for the believers to follow when someone or something presented itself as a hindrance to the devotion of the people. Each “say” was followed with what seemed to be a retort. Both the Bible and the Qur’an require its followers to have some form of blind devotion. Some form of giving themselves away to this religion and completely trusting what is behind it. It isn’t a bad thing per say, but it can be for those who do not believe and question because we don’t know what really happens until the end.

What kinds of characteristics are given to those who are non-believers?

            In Surah 107 (Common Kindness/Neighborly Needs), we have a Meccan surra who describes a man that is not accepting of the Judgment. A man such as this is seen as someone who “pushes aside the orphan and does not urge others to feed the needy.” This shows that there is no sympathy or empathy within a person who is a non-believer. This calls out non-believers and labels them as people who are almost without care or soul just for the fact that they do not follow. “…those who are all show and forbid common kindness,” is another characteristic given. It seems to imply that these people are all show and basically fake. There is nothing substantial there but a play put on to distract or manipulate. This reminds me a lot of the snake from the Bible. The snake was just a character there to taunt and manipulate. These people are viewed as just that. Since they are not followers, everything they believe in must be wrong.  I also personally see the usage of “common” to describe the act of kindness implies that even the most simple of acts or selflessness are viewed as unimportant and uninteresting. These people do not follow the correct way; therefore they are to be condemned.  

God in the Qur'an and the Bible

The most important difference that I noted in the Qur'an and the Bible was God's attitude. While both texts made me ask questions about intentions and actions of different characters, the Bible presents more questions about God than the Qur'an. The overarching character quality that is really emphasized about God is that he is an all-powerful, all-knowing, etc. character. There is nobody who is above God, as is frequently demonstrated all throughout books like Genesis, which is more or less one long torrent of God's wrath. However, other, more specific moments in the bible make me sort of double-take, and wonder about how all-knowing, etc. God can really be. Take, for example, the story of Noah in the bible. In the bible God regrets his creation of mankind, and decides to flood the world, killing everyone. In the Qur'an, however, God doesn't express any regret, despite the amounts of sinning in the world, and whatever else is going on, God still doesn't act as though this wasn't something that he expected, or anything like that. It seems odd that God should act as though he is surprised or something, and then act as though he needs to solve some kind of problem (i.e.: flood the world); if God knew that this problem was going to arise then wouldn't he have been able to solve it beforehand? Therefore making his all-knowing status actually something verifiable. In the Qur'an Noah is actually the one who expresses regret for the human race, not God. Even though God agrees with Noah in a sense, and goes through with his plan to flood the world, it's important that God doesn't contradict his position as an all-powerful being by somehow expressing such a human quality, like regret or something similar.

Women in the Bible and the Qu'ran

Emma Jean Liberman

It is pretty fascinating that while the Western world is extraordinarly convinced of its moral superiority regarding how it treats women, the Qu'ran seems to be a bit more progressive towards the treatment of women than the Bible.

In the Bible, Lot offers his daughters as sacrifices to rapists, G-d punishes women far more than men (with pain and death in childbirth) for seeking knowledges in the Old Testament while in the Qu'ran Adam and Eve share the blame: partners, rather than placing men as masters. Allah creates men and women out of clay together as equals: Genesis in the Bible is a bit more murky about the subject

Americans today, even the liberals,  justify military intervention today in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan today by talking about freeing women in veils without asking how they relate to their religion, which does reek of neo-colonialism and paternalism in the very worst sense. 

The Bible vs. The Qur'an

Kelly Gilbert

HUMN 220

Professor B. Akmen

2/5/13

The Bible vs. The Qur’an

            After reading parts of The Qur’an, I felt as though it was very complex and hard to understand, making it much less interesting than The Bible. I feel that The Bible uses much simpler terms and puts concepts in clearer meanings than the Qur’an. The Qur’an is also not put in chronological order. The events are somewhat jumbled around, unlike in The Bible where they are put in specific order from when they occurred.

I personally did not like how events and characters were different in The Qur’an as compared to in The Bible. I feel that important things like the story of Adam and Eve and the creature known as Satan and events that occurred involving them should not be changed. They should stay consistent in every book that they’re included in. I realize some people may find it interesting that over time, these characters and their stories slightly change in books, I find it unethical. Our past is important and people shouldn’t go writing books that infringe on what really happened. It’s almost the same idea as someone just changing the laws that congress enacts. That is wrong and it should not happen. This is basically the same as people changing the ideas of what happened in The Bible and putting them in The Qur’an. Whether it’s a different belief or not, those are huge events that occurred in our past and they should stay the way they were originally put down onto paper.

After reading parts of both The Bible and The Qur’an, I’ve found that The Bible is much more interesting and easier to understand. I do not recommend The Qur’an to someone who would like to learn about the creation of the Earth with Adam and Eve and the idea of Satan, although Satan was much more typical in The Qur’an than in The Bible because he wasn’t referred to as a serpent. This may be a racist view, but I feel that only Christians should read and understand The Bible as their sacred text, and only the Muslims should consider The Qur'an their sacred and holy text. Being a Christian myself, I would much rather read The Bible than The Qur'an, but that's just my opinion, of course. 

Blog 3

The Bible and the Qur'an share many things, but, what about their numerous anomalies?

1) What are the differences of the idea of creation in the Qur'an versus the Bible?

Creation is common in both the Qur'an and the Bible. However, there are numerous differences between the two. Each book explains that creation occurred over the time period of six days, the difference being: the six days of the Bible were clearly, Earth rotation days, where as the six days of the Qur'an may easily be interpreted as millions of years. The Bible also clearly describes what was made on each of the six days of creation. The Qur'an, though, gives vague details. The Bible tells us that man was created on Earth, in the Garden of Eden. The Qur'an tells us that, rather than being created on Earth, man was created in Paradise and later banished to Earth.

2) How does the fall of man differ in the Bible from the Qur'an?

In Genesis, Adam and Eve were given free access to the "Tree of Life" and they were forbidden from eating the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge." In the Qur'an, the "Tree of Eternity," which is equated with giving eternal life and therefore comparable to the "Tree of Life," is forbidden. In regard to actually eating the forbidden fruit, Genesis explains that Eve was enticed by a serpent, who tells her that she will not die, but, will in fact, "be like God, in knowing good and evil." In the Qur'an, though, it was Iblis(Satan) who enticed Adam and his wife. Satan whispered to them, "Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest ye should become angels or such things that live forever." There were also consequences in the book of Genesis, such as man now having to work to eat, that were a result of man's disobedience. Where as, in the Qur'an, toil and sweat were an integral part of the original creation of Earth.

3) How does the story of Noah and his Ark contrast between the Bible and the Qur'an?

In the Bible, it rained on Earth for 40 days and 40 nights, the ark was afloat for 150 days, and the flood's total duration was 370 days. There were also specific dimensions given of the ark. In the Qur'an, there is no mention of the ark's size, nor any mention of the duration of the flood. In the Bible, eight people survived(Noah and his family) and man was granted permission to eat meat after the flood. In the Qur'an, though, it appears that one of Noah's sons drowned and possibly his wife, as well. Man also was able to eat meat on Earth from the beginning.

The Bible and the Qur'an may have much in common, yet, many crucial aberrations are quite apparent in the text.

Thoughts on the Qur'an and the Old & New Testament, their origins, and how they've transformed from the original text.

Chris Iorio

Thoughts on the Qur'an and the Old & New Testament, their origins, and how they've transformed from the original text.

Learning that the Torah, Old Testament of the Bible, and various parts of the Qur'an (such as The Heights, The Rocky Tract, Noah, etc.) are all translations and 'revisions' of the original Torah has raised great concern in regards to the validity of the latter texts. I greatly question the validity of the latter texts because not only are there modifications made to the texts, but they are also not in the original language, but are translations (and sometimes even translations of translations!).

The fact that they are translations raises the concern that the original meanings of various passages are lost in translations from Hebrew to Greek to Latin and then to English! There are many examples of how various passages in the Old and New Testament of the Bible have greatly changed from the original meanings. One example brought up in class multiple times is the Lucifer passage. In Isaiah 14:12 , the King James version (the most popular version of the Bible) states “O Lucifer, son of the morning!,” (1) while the original translation from the Hebrew version of the bible states “O day-star, son of the morning!” (2) Furthermore, with the usage of the name Lucifer in this passage, it has become a common misconception that Lucifer is a direct reference to Satan, when it in fact is not in this passage, but a reference to a Babylonian King (Isaiah 14:4). This is just one example of many where a difference in wording due to translations can greatly affect how a reader interprets the text.

The Qur'an raises some concerns with me because many passages that originated from the Torah have been 'revised.' While I do feel that many of these revisions of the stories make more sense, such as everything being created in 6 days as opposed to 7 days, as Allah does not need to rest on a seventh day like in the Biblical Genesis, this still raises great concerns to me. By what right or authority does anyone have to drastically modify the text of an original document and claim it to be a valid account? If the original Torah is supposed to be of divine origin, as all the Abrahamic religions profess, then why would such divine pieces of scripture need to be so drastically revised? Furthermore, how would this be any different or more or less valid if I were to go and make the “Chris Iorio version of the Old Testament” and make modifications to the stories as I please? I don't bring this up to try to tear down the Qur'an, but more so out of a genuine curiosity as how this is accepted as permissible? Again, I'll point out that from what I've read of all three version of the Old Testament that I actually like the Qur'an version the best from a literary perspective, as it flows a lot better and makes more sense. From a literal and historical perspective though, I have a hard time believing that it may be an accurate representation of the whole meaning and intent of the original texts due to so many modifications.

1.http://bible.cc/isaiah/14-12.htm

2.http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1014.htm